“Each of us is responsible for how we see, and how we see determines what we see. Seeing is not merely a physical act: the heart of the vision is shaped by the state of the soul.”
(John O’Donohue, Divine Beauty)
You know those occasions when something you read takes your breath away?
This morning it happened while reading Steve Marshall’s new blog post Wisdom.
Steve and I have tracked each other for a while now. Our respective musings seem to be travelling in the same direction. And while we exchange via Twitter, we have not actually spoken.
But today, what Steve has to say sums up so much of what I have been exploring. So I want to offer you his words rather than mine as the reflection for this week.
I am not going to copy the whole post – there is far too much to mine, and I want you to read it in his voice anyway – but here are some threads.
“It’s taken me a while to gather the courage to name my work in organisational life as a contribution to ‘wisdom’, but greying hair and a lined face offers the benefit of a little eccentricity.”
Oh yes!
And what about you? It doesn’t have to include the physical features!
“So, as I attempt to offer value in #SeeingDifferently, I notice how I am looking for pattern and perspective across our shared experience, trying to discern our emerging questions instead of rapidly delivering answers and prescriptions…
“I hope that by maintaining a stance of self-doubt, peering deeply into my interior sensing of events, as well as trying to carefully notice what is happening ‘out there’, I can be alert and competent enough to name and illustrate what I see…
“We can all be ‘seers’; we all have vision, we all have wisdom and, when our souls speak, we all have something to say.”
What an invitation. And it applies to us all.
How are we going to respond?
Thanks for reading
Sue
This week
- Monday: ‘Slowness in human relations’
- Tuesday: Slow sight
- Wednesday: Awaiting fruitfulness
- Thursday: Inner sight
- Friday: This moment